VirtualOT

I am an Australian occupational therapist, educator and researcher.
I have worked as an OT in mental health, vocational rehabilitation and a private surgical hospital. I am passionate using online technology to enhance the knowledge and growth of the occupational therapy profession. In my PhD research I am looking at the role of online technologies in information management and knowledge transfer in occupational therapy.
Views expressed and stories shared on this blog are my opinion and do not represent views of my employer or professional registration body.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Do you want to be inspired? The Incredible Power of a Single Pair Of Glasses

My wife and I received advice long ago that Date Night was the key to a successful marriage.

We had plans, but a friend came by and asked if we wanted to go to an art show instead.

That was the night I was introduced to Tempt.

When we got to the show there were posters and signs everywhere
saying "TemptOne Benefit." There was a palpable buzz about the place. I
kept hearing people talking about this Tempt. Even the art on the walls
by incredibly famous artists had his name worked into them. After being
there a while and hearing about this Tempt, I finally asked "So where
is this guy anyway?" The answer was shocking. "He lives in a hospital.
On life support. He's completely paralyzed. He has ALS."

The EyeWriter has been a journey, and due to the nature of ALS it's a
never-ending one. It started in 2008, and it continues on today.

I am often asked, "Why did you do it?" The first time I heard this
question, I was caught off guard. I had never really thought about
"why" I did it. I was always just focused on the "how" to get it done.I boiled the HOW down to 3 things:

1. Singularity of focus.
We weren't trying to create the next big thing. We didn't have
visions of revolutionizing the medical device industry. We wanted to
help Tempt. One person. I think that had we gone in with visions of
sugarplums and tried to help all people with ALS, we would have missed
the mark of creating something that helped Tempt because we would have
been so distracted. Singularity of focus kept us and keeps us on track.

2. Give it away.
Giving something away is a powerful thing, but I had no idea how
powerful it really is. When we first created the EyeWriter in the living
room of our house, it was decided that if we were going to make this
thing to help Tempt draw again, then it had to be open source.
Understanding the practice of open source within the software world did
not prepare me for what this philosophy was capable of when applied
outside of the world of programming. I can say, without a doubt, that
the act of giving the EyeWriter away was one of the most important and
powerful components of the project. We made a documentary about the
EyeWriter journey called "Getting Up: The Tempt One Story." (We want
this story shared so we are giving it away at gettingup-thedoc.com.)

3. Beautiful, limitless naivety.
After our documentary premiered in Park City, a group of computer
programmers approached us to tell us how much they enjoyed the film.
They told us that since seeing our film they had been discussing amongst
themselves why they thought we had succeeded. Their consensus? "If
you had any f***ing idea how hard it was to do what you did, there was
no way you would have done it in the first place." They had discussed
this idea amongst themselves and concluded that they should become more
like us. "Clueless?" I asked. "Sort of... more like naive," they
replied. Turns out, our naivety was the key to us tackling the
EyeWriter with brave abandon. We didn't know that we weren't supposed to
be able to do it. We didn't know that kind of thing doesn't really
happen in 2.5 weeks. We didn't know what we didn't know. And because of
that, the entire team just did it because no one ever contemplated or
considered the concept of failure.

Now the WHY.
Since this project has been ongoing since 2008, I've had some time to
think about the "why." Why I pushed so hard to make the EyeWriter for a
person I didn't really know at first. Why it was so successful. Why
it seems to touch people in such a powerful and meaningful way.

I did it for my brother. I did it for my dad. I did it for my sons. It's really that simple.

The day I met with Stephen and Ron, Tempt's brother and father, it
was like looking in a mirror that somehow, luckily, had avoided me.

I am a father. I have sons. I have a brother. I could not imagine
what it would be like to not be able to talk to them everyday and ask
them what they were thinking or feeling. Basic communication was nearly
impossible for Tempt. That struck me as wrong.

Why did I do it? Because I don't think anyone who has stared face to
face with a reality like that can just walk away and say, "Good luck. I
hope everything works out for you." You can't walk away from someone or
something that hits that close to home. I had no idea how it was going
to affect my life -- or more importantly -- how I was going to pull it
off. But I knew I could not, in good conscience, just walk away.